ESPN is no stranger to overkill.
This is the network that aired the first fifteen minutes of the 2007 NBA Finals on fifteen different platforms (delaying the start of an MLS telecast on ESPN2 in the process). This is the network that aired NASCAR specials every single night in prime-time for a week (pre-empting live sporting events in the process). This is the network of the three-hour pregame show for the debut of David Beckham, and the weekly seven-hour pregame show for Monday Night Football games (which will mercifully be cut to four and a half hours this year).
So certainly, overkill is hardly a new phenomenon to ESPN. What is new, is overkill that borders on self-parody. ESPN, as some may already know, will air a 25-hour pregame show prior to its first college football telecast of the season next week. The pregame show will start a 7:00 PM on Wednesday, and last until the opening kickoff of the LSU/Mississippi State game on Thursday at 8:00 PM. 25 Hours of College Football Presented by TIVO will include six episodes of College Football Live, along with college-football themed editions of regularly scheduled programming.
The first of the six episodes of College Football Live will air next Wednesday for four hours (bumping Wednesday Night Baseball to ESPN2). Among the features in that first episode will be a roundtable discussion between “Brent Musburger and former Irish coaches Ara Parseghian, Lou Holtz and Charlie Weis discussing what it is like to coach at Notre Dame.” Following that telecast, College Football Live will air again at midnight for a half-hour, then at 3:00 AM for two live hours, which will be followed by a three-hour telecast Thursday at noon, a half-hour telecast Thursday at 3:30 PM, and an hour-long edition Thursday at 7:00 PM. Every edition will be hosted by Rece Davis, who will also host the college football segments on SportsCenter.
Will 25 straight hours of college football themed programming draw a huge audience to ESPN?s opening game? Possibly, though it is more likely there will be no effect on the ratings for the game whatsoever. There is, of course, the possibility that the 25 hour pregame show could have an adverse effect on the numbers; Game 1 of the NBA Finals, which tipped off on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPNU and ESPN Deportes, was the lowest rated Game 1 in over two decades (and the series as a whole was the lowest rated in league history). While college football may be a stronger television property than the NBA, it is not unreasonable to imagine that a 25 hour long pregame show may have the opposite effect of what ESPN intends.
Beyond having a pregame show that lasts more than a day, one wonders what the need is for ESPN to go to such extremes. The consistent overkill appears to be symptomatic of a disconnect between ESPN and sports fans.
For ESPN, the game itself is not exciting or interesting enough. There has to be something more; there has to be a gimmick. Whether that gimmick is hours upon hours of analysis, some musical group performing a song prior to the game, some special camera angle that is apparently supposed to make fans watch in droves, or televising the game on eighteen different networks, the game itself stops being the focus, while all of the ancillary elements become more important. No longer is it a college football game, but “look how long we can talk about college football!” No longer is it the NBA Finals, but “look how many channels we can put the game on!” No longer is it Monday Night Football, but “look what celebrities we have in the booth tonight!”
Whereas fans are actually interested in watching the game, ESPN is more interested in FloorCam and Beckham Cam, The Pussycat Dolls and Aerosmith, and 25 hours of talking about a sport as opposed to the sport itself. And while that mindset has not had an effect on ratings or popularity for the network, it has certainly moved ESPN from being a legitimate sports entity to being more like a nightmarish mixture of Disney and MTV.
